WELLINGTON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government unveiled plans Thursday to clean up some of the country's notoriously filthy rivers and lakes - only to be accused of shifting the goal posts for measuring pollution.
The government announced a "challenging" target of 90 percent of New Zealand's lakes and rivers meeting "swimmable" water quality standards - meaning safe to submerge your head in - by 2040, alongside new policy, regulations and funding to help achieve the new goal.
However, environment campaigners said the government had doubled the number of swimmable waterways by simply redefining "swimmable."
"This ambitious plan to improve the water quality in our lakes and rivers recognizes that New Zealanders expect to be able to take a dip in their local river or lake without getting a nasty bug," Environment Minister Nick Smith said in a statement.
"It will make us a world leader in water quality standards for swimming, and that's important for New Zealand's growing tourism industry. It will return our rivers and lakes to a standard not seen in 50 years while recognizing that our frequent major rainfalls mean a 100-percent standard is not realistic."
The plan was backed up by national regulations requiring stock to be fenced out of waterways, new national policy requirements for municipal authorities to strengthen their rules on issues such as sewage discharges and planting riparian margins.
The target covered the length of rivers over 40 centimeters deep and the perimeters of lakes greater than 1.5 km, which totalled 54,000 km.
The swimmable target was based on meeting the water quality standard at least 80 percent of the time, in line with European and U.S. definitions.
Currently 72 percent of waterways by length met this definition nationwide.
The government's National Policy Statement (NPS) for Freshwater Management was being strengthened to support the swimmability target by replacing the category of "wadeable" - meaning only safe to walk in - with "swimmable," said Smith.
The release of the new goal follows growing agitation among the public and the tourism industry at the levels of pollution in waterways, and the presentation of a 12-signature petition to Parliament on Wednesday demanding swimmable rivers.
The opposition Green Party, which presented the petition, said the government had done "nothing but shift the goal posts" by simply re-labelling the standards, so that what was once only safe for wading was now to be considered safe for swimming.
"New Zealanders asked for rivers clean enough to swim in, not a re-branded version of 'dirty'," Green Party water spokesperson Catherine Delahunty said in a statement.
"There is nothing in today's announcement that will stop the pollution of our rivers from dirty dairying, or the damaging effects of irrigation."
Environment campaign groups said people were more likely to get sick by swimming in waterways because the "European and U.S. definitions" were less strict than those previously used.
"Until now, the standard for our cleanest rivers allowed a one in a hundred chance of getting sick. Now, the proposal is that you will have a one in 20 chance of getting sick - and that's their top standard," Forest & Bird CEO Kevin Hague said in a statement.
Greenpeace said the "European and U.S. definitions" almost doubled the number of rivers that were swimmable without the government "lifting a finger to improve them."
"The officially accepted percentage of New Zealand rivers you can safely swim in stood at 38 percent before today," Greenpeace campaigner Gen Toop said in a statement.
"With the wave of a magic wand Mr Smith has bumped up that figure to 72 percent."
